Story Highlights

LOS ANGELES — After co-starring in movies such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Precious, actress Paula Patton turns to the dark side of the Internet in the new film Disconnect, playing a victim of online identity theft.

Making the movie (which opens on Friday) opened her eyes to the perils of online security, as she told us in a recent interview at the swanky SLS Hotel here.

The Internet is saturated with infections lurking in e-mail attachments, hidden on popular websites and elsewhere. "Keystroke loggers" can capture your logons. Even your webcam is vulnerable to hacking. "If you have a computer with a camera on it, if you can see out, they can see in. It's a real-live window. They can watch you typing your password, which was really frightening to me." She responded by putting a sticker over her webcam to disable it.

ONLINE SHOPPING

After acting in a movie in which her character sees her bank account wiped out, she's now wary of online financial transactions, but she hasn't totally kicked online shopping. "I can't pay with cash for everything. I do buy things on the Internet, but I try to do it less frequently than I used to."

HER TAKE ON TECH

"My use of the Internet is more searching to find out what is this or that. I do love the ability to get information quickly. In that way, it's opened up the world for everyone to know more than we've ever known before, but there's obviously some frightening elements."

THOUGHTS ON E-MAIL AND TEXTING

"Texting interrupts your life. I've been out with people, having a great time, and then hold on — someone sent you a text, and now you're in a bad mood. I hate that about it. Somehow we survived without having phones when we left the house before. My parents had no way of getting in touch with us."

Paula Patton | Smartphone Obsession | TalkingYourTech

DEVICES

iPhone and iPad.

HOW LONG COULD SHE GO BEING DISCONNECTED

"I could do a good week or two on an island. Absolutely. I couldn't let go of it completely, unless everybody else decided to let go of it. It's the world we live in. You've got to keep up with the times."

Paula Patton | How Long Could She Disconnect? | TalkingYourTech

WHAT WOULD BE THE HARDEST THING TO GIVE UP

Online radio service Pandora. She regularly tweets favorite Pandora stations (including music devoted to French DJ Breakbot) via her @PaulaPattonXO Twitter handle. "I love Pandora. I would miss that. You can put in artists you like, and they'll put in artists that are similar."

Besides Breakbot, she also likes the music of husband Robin Thicke and classic 1960s Brazilian jazz by the late Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.

FAVORITE APPS

Susan Miller's Astrology Zone ($3.99 for Apple iOS and Android)."I like to look at my astrology every day. It's a good way to start my morning."

Netflix (free for Apple and Android). "I'm obsessed with it."

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox (99 cents for iOS, $1.99 for Android), a game her 3-year-old son enjoys playing based on matching fruits.

Yelp (free for Apple and Android). "I like to eat, and I'm not much of a cook, so I like Yelp" to figure out where to go to eat.